Sad old Portsea beach
March 2011. It’s been quite a while since our last update, but we haven’t gone away. We suppose though that the Department of Sustainability (DSE) and the Office of Environmental Monitor (OEM) had hoped their problem of the disappearing Portsea beach might have gone away….Well their problem hasn’t gone but the beach has!
Sadly for them and thousands of holiday makers who once loved Portsea, the $millions of taxpayers’ funds thrown at months of beach works at Portsea have done nothing to solve the problem of the disappearing beach. The DSE and OEM have been left to defend the channel deepening project long after the disappearance of its champion Mr. Brumby -who is a distant memory – leaving some unwanted legacies such as at Portsea with its sad and near useless beach and a massive sign erected by the Brumby regime spruiking how their plan to build a massive sand bag wall and dump some rocks near the pier would restore the beach.
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A couple of bedraggled metal detecting types picking through the remaining dirty sand are the only beach goers this Summers day 2011 at Portsea.
Local papers report that the damage is obvious and Portsea businesses, including the Portsea Hotel owned juice bar claim that their takings are down 50% since the Entrance was deepened and the beach started to disappear. See: http://mornington-peninsula-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/beach-of-discontent/
Dive businesses too continue to report that tides and current speed have increased markedly whilst ocean swell now regularly pounds the beach and pier – making boat operations extremely difficult. (We recently were swamped trying to land a dingy on Portsea beach on an otherwise calm day but with a massive swell – it was like riding the rapids. Ed)
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